Runaway Rita
by Brockster550
Summary: A brief one-shot of what Rita's life was possibly like before she joined Fagin, Dodger, Tito, Einstein and Francis.


_Disclaimer: All I own is this fanfic, the rest of Oliver And Company belongs to their respective owners. No copyright intended!_

 **Author's note 1: My second one-shot based on a Disney movie. This one will focus on Rita's life before crossing paths with Fagin and his dogs (sometime before Dodger's first meeting with Oliver). Hope you enjoy!**

Runaway Rita

Fanfic by Brockster550

Once upon a time, a saluki was seen lurking through the streets of New York City. Her name was Rita (her name was engraved on a worn-out pink collar around her neck) and she was a runaway. Supposedly, she was too much trouble at her previous residence, which she ran away from three weeks ago.

(Rita's memory)

Rita was taking a nap on her dog bed when she heard two of her owners (a man and his 8 year old daughter) talking, in another room. Rita lifted her head and perked her ears up to hear the discussion better, but realized that this was a discussion she didn't want to hear.

"Vicky, we need to get rid of Rita," said the man adamantly. "She's a real nuisance."

"No she isn't, daddy," cried the girl named Vicky. "What m-makes you think otherwise?"

"She just is," said Vicky's father. "Tomorrow, we're taking her to the pound."

"No, daddy!" pleaded Vicky.

"No ifs, ands or buts, Vicky," said her father firmly. "We're getting rid of Rita and that's final."

Rita couldn't believe what all she heard. Then Vicky came in and sat down next to her dog, with tears in her eyes. Vicky was a beautiful girl with dark-blonde hair in braids and green eyes. She was wearing a pair of overalls over a purple t-shirt, and a pair of purple socks.

"Sorry, girl," Vicky replied tearfully while petting Rita, then giving her a hug. "We have to give you away. Dad won't say why."

Later that night (at midnight), Rita decided to run away, believing that she was a burden. She knew Vicky's father wasn't fond of her. After walking out through her custom-made doggie door, Rita looked up at the window that was Vicky's room.

"Goodbye Vicky," Rita said, with tears welling up. "We-e had so-ome great ti-imes together! I'll ne-ev-er forge-et you!"

With her decision finalized, Rita turned around and ran off into the night. It took her a little over a week before she reached New York City. She spent at least the next two weeks scavenging for food, but it wasn't filling enough. This resulted in Rita becoming a little too skinny.

(End of memory)

Rita snapped back to reality and continued searching for food. This was becoming harder and harder and by the time she reached the boat docks, she collapsed. She was too weak from lack of food, but then a man came strolling by.

"Oh my," the man replied, with concern in his voice when he saw the saluki nearing starvation. "You look all hungry, why don't come with me."

The man picked Rita up and carried her over to his destination. With her eyes barely open, Rita saw the man was taking her to a boat. It turned out that this was the man's home, and he set Rita on a table to look over her.

"You poor girl," said the man. "What's a dog like you doing all the out here?"

Rita also caught a brief glimpse of three more dogs resting nearby.

"So your name is Rita," said the man, looking at the worn-out collar. "Where are your owners? Until they ever find you, I'll look after you. I need to buy some more dog food."

After petting Rita, the man left his home. The three dogs got up to look over Rita. She saw that the dogs were made up of a mongrel, a great dane and a bulldog.

"Hello there," said the mongrel. "I'm Dodger."

"I'm Francis." said the bulldog.

"I'm Einstein." said the great dane. "The man who brought you here our owner, Fagin."

"Nice to meet you all," said Rita, in barely above a whisper. "My name is Rita…"

"I got some food!" exclaimed another voice.

"Way to go, Tito," said Dodger. "We have a guest here, in starvation it seems like."

Rita saw that Tito was a chihuahua, and brought what looked like salmon or something. Tito gave Rita some of the salmon he brought back with him.

"Some of the fishies were jumping outta the water," said Tito. "Our guest should have the first bite."

"Thank you very much." said Rita.

She could only eat a little bit, since she barely had any food since running away. Tito left the barge again to see if he could catch some more fish.

"So Rita, why were you on the brink of starvation?" asked Dodger.

She told the other dogs (after Tito came back with more salmon) what happened three weeks ago. How she was close to being sent to a pound because the man wasn't fond of her, despite Vicky's protests. Dodger, Einstein, Francis and Tito were wide eyed in shock.

"How awful," said Dodger. "Some man wanting to get rid of you because he didn't like you."

"I do feel sorry for the girl," said Einstein. "She's probably all distraught now."

"Yeah, she and I enjoyed each other's company," Rita whispered. "Running away wasn't easy, but I felt it would've made it easier if Vicky's father didn't have to go to all that trouble of taking me to a pound when I could just leave on my own."

It took a month or so for Rita to get back to where she was prior to running away. She was accepted into the gang when they saw that she had some good sneaking skills, which became useful when getting food. Fagin waited a while longer to see if Rita's original owners would ever come looking for her. With no luck or hope of it ever happening, Fagin decided to keep Rita.

"Welcome to the gang, Rita," said Fagin, petting her. "We can use all the help we can."

Rita was happy to see someone else take her under their wing. But she never forgot those precious moments with Vicky (and never will), and that's something that she'll treasure forever. Maybe it was for the best that she left, but Rita knew that she'll still be there for Vicky in some way, even if she wasn't there physically.

"Good luck Vicky." Rita whispered as she fell asleep that night.

 _The End!_

 **Author's note 2: It would be unlikely for Fagin to have stolen Dodger, Rita, Einstein, Francis and Tito. Fagin is normally seen as something like a petty criminal and stealing pets is at least a misdemeanor and a felony at worst. So Fagin more than likely found the dogs as strays and decided to take them under his wing. Why Vicky's father wasn't fond of Rita, I'm going to leave that up to you.**


End file.
